Flickering Xenon head lights on a BMW E38 99

[Mag65]

Hello my name is Magnus,
This is my first post on this excellent forum. I have a BMW 740 E38 from 1999 and I live in Sweden. My problem is that my low beam xenon hedalight is flickering and I get a message on pod to check low beam lights. It's only one light at the time that does this and it chages side from left to right. it seem to happen when I use the blinker and the sporadically throutghout my drives. I have changed the light bulbs to new ones! and the ballast's. Checked the ground points by the headlight. Could it be the lcm!? I have the 3rd generation of lcm in my car.

Hope you guys can help me with this.

Mag65

[Edwin NL]

Welcome here!

Swap the light bulb from side to side if it stays on that side swap your ballast if it moves to the other side the ballast is bad

[Mag65]

Hi Edwin,
I have replaced both ballasts and bulbs with new ones.

Cheers
Mag65

[IcemanBHE]

Welcome to the forum.

[SEVEN40iL]

Welcome

[Route 66]

Welcome!

[2000bmwe38]

Could be a bad ground?

[BobsBimmer]

Welcome to the forum!

[Edwin NL]

Did you swap for OEM??

[Mag65]

Hello Edwin,

It's OEM all the way and nothing shows up when I hook it up at the local BMW dealer. It a tricky one lads.

Cheers
Mag65

[Edwin NL]

Check the ground connections (Brown wires)

[Mag65]

I have checked the ones by the head lights! Do you know of any other that could be a problem.

cheers
Mag65

[Mag65]

Hello Edwin!

A quick update on the flickering Xenon. I have found the problem and it was a faulty ignition switch. That thing can trigger all sorts of things. Well all I have left is to replace my fuel tank that is rusty. The joys of living up nort wit road salt.

Cheers
Magnus

[IcemanBHE]

Interesting. Thanks for followup.

[Mag65]

Hello again my fellow E38 Friends, I was a bit to quick to post that I had fixed my flickering xenon lights by replacing the ignition switch. The problem came back the folowing day. As I am one that does not give up easily i finally realized that it had to be the LCM. I bought a used on on ebay and sent my old one together with new one to RPM Motorsport LTD in Canada to get programmed to work with my car. Now it works like it was new. Problem solved permanetly so now I am off to Sunny So Cal and LA for some R&R

Cheers
Mag65

[Mistercars]

Do you guys think the LCM would cause them to burn at different temps? even after a bulb replacement and swamping sides without any change?

[Mag65]

Mistercars, I would suspect that you have a bad ballast if your car has Xenon lights, or a bad ground that would cause you not to get the enough power to your light.

[Mistercars]

yea it does have Xenon's. I will start there thanks you

[farhansadiq]

hi there guys my xenons start up bright white and then turn orange what could be the cause? ballasts, igniters or bulbs?

[bmwe38dave]

The headlights will flicker side to side as you've said if you have led bulbs even if the headlights are switched off. Hope this helps

[daytonatrbo]

Dude, 3 year old thread.

Whats with the class of 2015??

[HDIDDY]

When its cold I have to turn my lights on and off a few times for them to ignite and stay on.

[Haadkoe]

Dude, 3 year old thread.

Whats with the class of 2015??

At least they're using the search button.

[daytonatrbo]

At least they're using the search button.

True!


just noticed his join date is almost as old as the thread and this was his first post. Odd.

[sealbeach740]

Hey now. It was his first post.

Maybe he looked up his problem, found something similar & then replied to sorta ask if there was any new info since he's having the same problem.

I agree it wasn't the ideal way to go about asking for a bit of help, but like Haadkoe mentioned, he's one of the few new guys that actually used the Search button.

Although I don't really think he has LED headlights, more than likely they're Xenon bulbs.